The late political scientist Samuel Huntington marveled at its place in our national life: We pledge allegiance to it. The national anthem celebrates it. An incredibly elaborate code stipulates how it is to be displayed, handled and maintained. It even has its own holiday.Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Smart people living in harm's way of hurricanes know to fortify their homes before the storm hits. In a similar vein, the prudent will shore up their financial position before the next recession bears down -- and one surely will. We're all in harm's way of an economic downturn.Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Harvard University came under justified attack when it named Chelsea Manning a visiting fellow. Critics asked how Harvard could honor a former U.S. Army private convicted of leaking 750,000 classified or sensitive documents.Friday, September 22, 2017

Say this about President Donald J. Trump: He never fails to astonish. For in his maiden speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations Tuesday morning, he stunned his critics by his repeated, respectful bows to hoary tradition even as he opened up unusual attacks on other nations and rival ideologies -- and issued an unprecedented vow from a podium of peace to mount a military assault to "totally destroy" another country.Thursday, September 21, 2017

As Seattle ascended into the club of superstar American cities, its housing became expensive and its streets congested. That's the price of success. These factors helped prompt Amazon.com to announce plans to build a second headquarters somewhere else in North America.Monday, September 18, 2017

As the United States and North Korea -- both armed with incendiary rhetoric and nuclear weapons -- taunt and challenge each other, the crisis in East Asia underlines an important, immutable but much-ignored law of international relations: Peripheral disputes have a dangerous tendency to grow into principal areas of conflict.Saturday, September 16, 2017

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (AP) — He inspected a mock-up nuclear warhead, but there was no Kim Jong Un lookalike posing for photographs. He chatted with nuclear missile launch officers in their underground command post, but there was no talk of unleashing nuclear hell on North Korea.Thursday, September 14, 2017

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s Republican-led Senate on Wednesday formally reprimanded a Democratic colleague for a Facebook post hoping for President Donald Trump’s assassination, while the House took the less serious step of opening an ethics review of a Republican’s post calling for a Confederate monument vandal to be hanged.Thursday, September 14, 2017

Donald Trump is being told that amnesty for "Dreamers," or DACA recipients, will only apply to a small, narrowly defined group of totally innocent, eminently deserving illegal immigrants, who were brought to this country "through no fault of their own" as "children." (Children who are up to 36 years old.)Thursday, September 14, 2017

Commentary on the DACA controversy frequently notes that the nation's nearly 700,000 so-called Dreamers are a law-abiding group. But a new bill to give DACA recipients full legal status, sponsored by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake and Democratic Senators Richard Durbin and Charles Schumer, would allow newly legalized Dreamers to have many run-ins with the law -- arrests, charges, convictions -- and still receive benefits. Schumer, the Democratic leader, is demanding quick passage.Wednesday, September 13, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government backlog of 700,000 security clearance reviews has led agencies like the Defense Department to inadvertently issue interim passes to criminals — even rapists and killers — prompting calls for better and faster vetting of people with access to the nation’s secrets.Tuesday, September 12, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — Roman Catholic leaders are objecting to Democratic senators’ line of questioning for one of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, arguing the focus on her faith is misplaced and runs counter to the Constitution’s prohibition on religious tests for political office.Tuesday, September 12, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon says the firing of FBI Director James Comey may have been the biggest mistake in “modern political history.”Monday, September 11, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that “we may have been a little bit lucky” after Hurricane Irma veered from its original course and headed along Florida’s west coast, instead of east. He said that path might be less destructive.

FREMONT, Ohio -- Some 120 years ago this month, in the first September of his presidency, a long-ignored and sometimes-discredited president, William McKinley, traveled here, to the hometown of his predecessor and mentor, Rutherford B. Hayes.Monday, September 11, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — A 60 cent postage stamp? The U.S. Postal Service would have to boost prices for mailing letters and packages by nearly 20 percent — the biggest one-time increase in its history — to avoid bankruptcy and improve delivery service, an industry analysis says.Saturday, September 9, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's ex-strategist is blasting White House aides who publicly distance themselves from the president's response to Charlottesville — yet stick it out in the West Wing.

Congress has tried to sneak through amnesties three times in a little more than a decade. Every time, the American people somehow found out -- despite the best efforts of the press -- rose up in a rage and killed the proposed bills.Friday, September 8, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's eldest son told lawmakers today he was open to receiving information about Hillary Clinton's "fitness, character or qualifications" in a meeting with a Russian lawyer last year.Thursday, September 7, 2017

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, who after the departure of Jeff Sessions has emerged as the Senate's leading immigration hawk, says he would support the legalization of all current DACA recipients -- nearly 700,000 of them -- if Congress would at the same time pass measures to protect Americans workers from the effects of that legalization.Thursday, September 7, 2017

PITTSBURGH -- Take a dozen people of wildly disparate views from a battleground state, put them together with one of the top public-opinion experts in the country, close the door for more than two hours and fortify them only with teeny 8-ounce bottles of water -- and the result is utterly unpredictable.Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Michael Moore's one-man show on Broadway is at times hilarious, at times tedious. While theater critics found "The Terms of My Surrender" greatly wanting, the liberal audiences seemed grateful for some comic resistance to the Trump era.Saturday, September 2, 2017

After I'd spent a decade begging Republicans, including a few presidential candidates, to take up the immigration issue, Donald J. Trump came along, championed the entire thesis of "Adios, America," and swept all contenders aside.Thursday, August 31, 2017

President Trump brings an outsider's perspective to the long debate over the Senate filibuster. An overwhelming majority of the Senate disagrees with his desire to kill the filibuster, which means he doesn't have a prayer of winning. But he's not entirely wrong, either.Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Let us avert our eyes from the president's display of instability in Phoenix. We knew what to expect. When Donald Trump occasionally goes "presidential," as he did the day before on Afghanistan, a tantrum is sure to follow. You could set your watch by it.Monday, August 28, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser sharply denounced the president’s response to the racial violence in Charlottesville, saying in an interview that he felt “compelled” to speak out. Gary Cohn, who is Jewish, was so upset by Trump’s comments that he wrote a letter of resignation but never submitted it.Saturday, August 26, 2017

PHOENIX (AP) — President Donald Trump spared former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio the prospect of serving jail time in granting the first pardon of his turbulent tenure, wiping away the lawman's recent federal conviction stemming from his immigration patrols that focused on Latinos.Saturday, August 26, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sebastian Gorka, a national security aide whose hard-line views on immigration and terrorism caused discord inside and outside the White House, is the latest official to exit President Donald Trump’s administration.Saturday, August 26, 2017

Let us avert our eyes from the president's display of instability in Phoenix. We knew what to expect. When Donald Trump occasionally goes "presidential," as he did the day before on Afghanistan, a tantrum is sure to follow. You could set your watch by it.Friday, August 25, 2017

Today the name H.R. "Bob" Haldeman is largely forgotten, the answer to a trivia question perhaps. But a generation ago, Haldeman, who has now been dead for nearly a quarter-century, was not a trivial figure. He was White House chief of staff in the Richard Nixon years, perhaps the most powerful presidential aide since FDR's Harry Hopkins, and a central figure in the Watergate scandal.Friday, August 25, 2017

I'm dying to hear about the "3-D chess" Trump is playing with his announcement on Monday that he's breaking his promise on Afghanistan and throwing more forces into that utterly pointless war. Will he be sending the transgender troops?Thursday, August 24, 2017

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Donald Trump's victory last November was that, according to exit polls, 60 percent of the voters had an unfavorable impression of Trump on the day he was elected president of the United States.Wednesday, August 23, 2017

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — In a heinous case on the Navajo Nation, an 11-year-old girl was lured into a van, sexually assaulted and killed. The man who has admitted responsibility is not facing the death penalty — and the tribe isn’t seeking it. Monday, August 21, 2017

If Van Jones was right that a moving tribute to the widow of a fallen Navy SEAL in a speech to Congress earlier this year was the moment Donald Trump became president, Trump's news conference on Tuesday was the moment he became a Breitbart contributing editor.Friday, August 18, 2017

Some Democrats and their advocates in the press have been quick to denounce the RAISE Act, the new immigration reform bill proposed by Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue and endorsed by President Trump.Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Let us briefly rest from the obscene world of politics and turn to the more wholesome subject of hookups at bars. A 28-year-old named Justin Schweiger was recently caught lining up six dates for one night. He had ordered this "buffet of women" with the help of dating apps.Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Robert E. Lee wasn't a Nazi, and surely would have had no sympathy for the white supremacist goons who made his statue a rallying point in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend.Tuesday, August 15, 2017

George W. Bush was a frenetic reader -- 95 books one year as president. Impressive, until you consider what Theodore Roosevelt read in the White House in 1902 and 1903, which included portions of Dante's "Inferno," Milton's "Paradise Lost," "Beowulf," Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Aristotle and histories of the early Syrian, Chaldean and Egyptian civilizations, along with five Shakespeare plays -- and tales from Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — As 21st century activists seek to topple monuments to the 19th century Confederate rebellion, some white Southerners are again advocating for what the Confederates tried and failed to do: secede from the Union.Saturday, August 12, 2017

A president campaigns with promises to achieve a specific goal. The House goes along. The Senate begins to examine the matter, accedes to various lawmakers' demands for special favors and concessions, but the process runs into resistance. Commentators ask why a Republican president with a Republican House and a Republican Senate can't pass a major element of the Republican platform.Friday, August 11, 2017

The current issue of Newsweek (yes, it's still in business!) has a picture of President Trump sitting in a recliner, with snacks and an iPad in his lap, pointing his TV remote at the viewer, blazoned with the headline, "Lazy Boy."Thursday, August 10, 2017

As part of what he calls a "redesign" of the State Department, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has surveyed more than 35,000 State employees on the most fundamental questions facing the organization. And Tillerson -- or, more accurately, a consulting firm hired by the secretary -- has found that large blocs of State workers do not agree on what the department's mission should be.Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Privacy advocates cried in protest after a report that the maker of the Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, will sell maps of customers' homes to third parties. Investors, on the other hand, shouted buy orders for the company's stock.Monday, August 7, 2017

He lost his job before he even started, which comes as no surprise to anyone who has spent any time working in Washington. Which, of course, the president's choice for communications director had not.Saturday, August 5, 2017

In early April, news reports were filled with word that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes had recused himself from the committee's Russia investigation. Outside activist groups accused Nunes of revealing classified information, and the House Ethics Committee decided to look into the matter. Nunes was forced to step aside from the Russia probe while the ethics watchdogs worked.Friday, August 4, 2017

In 1994, after 40 years in the wilderness, Republicans swept both houses of Congress, running on Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America," in which the GOP promised to hold votes on 10 popular policies in the first 100 days. They won, fulfilled the contract, and went on to control the House for more than a decade.Thursday, August 3, 2017

The boarding process for a recent flight required going up a modest set of stairs. Greatly slowing it all was a woman carrying at least 80 more pounds than were optimal. Every step was a labored exertion. Saturday, July 29, 2017

(THE CONVERSATION via AP) — Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of archival stories about concussions, including advice on how to recognize symptoms and explanations of why they can be so dangerous to children.

The boarding process for a recent flight required going up a modest set of stairs. Greatly slowing it all was a woman carrying at least 80 more pounds than were optimal. Every step was a labored exertion.

In an era when the tasteless is transcendent and when the vulgar is venerated, there is special notoriety for Kelli Ward, a West Virginia native, a physician and a former Arizona state senator. Like so many Americans, she had a visceral reaction to the news that Sen. John McCain had brain cancer. She suggested he step down and made it clear she thinks Gov. Doug Ducey should appoint her to the position.Friday, July 28, 2017

The Republican president has a job approval rating around 40 percent. The GOP has an unfavorability rating around 56 percent. And Republicans trail Democrats by nine points in an average of "generic ballot" polls.Wednesday, July 26, 2017

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine -- He wants to see the Houston Astros play in the World Series, which is possible this year. He wants to see the Houston Texans in the Super Bowl, perhaps a few years off. Mostly he wants to ride the high-speed rail train from Houston to Dallas, which won't be ready until 2023.Saturday, July 22, 2017

The ascension of Donald Trump was supposed to change everything in the GOP. As it happens, perhaps one very important thing hasn't: The Republicans may well still be The Stupid Party.Saturday, July 22, 2017

The public learned on March 10, 2015, that Hillary Clinton had more than 60,000 emails on her private email system, and that she had turned over "about half" of them to the State Department and destroyed the rest, which she said were "personal" and "not in any way related" to her work as secretary of state.Thursday, July 20, 2017

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least 200 land and environmental activists were slain in 2016 protecting forests, rivers and land from mining, logging and agricultural companies, the highest annual number on record, a watchdog group said this week.Saturday, July 15, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — The data and digital director for President Donald Trump’s campaign said today he will speak with the House Intelligence committee later this month as part of its Russia probe.Friday, July 14, 2017

Consider what got Martin Shkreli in trouble with the law. Shrkeli is the infamous "pharma bro" who bought patents to lifesaving drugs then hiked their prices to obscene levels. In one egregious example, he raised the price of a 62-year-old drug crucial to AIDS patients by over 5,000 percent.Thursday, July 13, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Tuesday that “state-sponsored” or criminal hackers are targeting U.S. nuclear power plants and other energy providers, but said the government has resources to safeguard the nation’s electric grid.Wednesday, July 12, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton’s former top campaign aides said Tuesday’s revelations about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer showed collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow during the 2016 race.Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Senate negotiations that resume this week on the overhaul of the health care system are about many things -- Medicaid spending levels, taxes, the opioid drug crisis, the number of Americans who will be uninsured. But this fight is only marginally about health care. It's really about power and politics and the presidency.Saturday, July 8, 2017

With his penchant for tweeted insults and GIFs, Donald Trump will never be mistaken for a master of the sweet art of persuasion. Yet he is clearly winning the public argument on the issue of immigration.Thursday, July 6, 2017

Many women obsess over their risk for breast cancer. That's why news media flash blazing headlines whenever a study suggests a link between breast cancer and some "exposure." That's why television news shows that rarely spare even five minutes for science of existential importance to humankind find time for this.Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Why are Republicans on Capitol Hill having so much trouble repealing and replacing Obamacare? There are reasons all over the place: subsidies, tax credits, tax cuts, Medicaid, essential health benefits, and many others. But there is one fundamental obstacle to getting rid of Obamacare, and it is very simple: Once the government starts giving away, it can't take back.Tuesday, July 4, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is pressuring wavering senators to back a Republican bill to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law but is holding open a repeal-only option if Republicans can’t reach agreement over the July 4 recess, Trump’s top legislative aide says.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A request for detailed information about every voter in the U.S. from President Donald Trump’s voting commission is getting a rocky reception from states — and he’s not happy about it.Saturday, July 1, 2017

In a year in which the unprecedented takes precedence -- presidential tweets in the predawn hours, for example, or conflicts with longtime allies -- the merely rare gets scant attention. But something very unusual is happening in American politics, and it merits more consideration than the fleeting events of the day.Saturday, July 1, 2017

In his new book "The Working Class Republican," a bracingly revisionist account of the 40th president, Henry Olsen answers "no." One of the most astute political analysts at work today and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Olsen argues that Reagan's politics bear the distinctive stamp of his origins as a New Deal Democrat. Friday, June 30, 2017

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s commission investigating alleged voter fraud in the 2016 elections has asked states for a list of the names, party affiliations, addresses and voting histories of all voters, if state law allows it to be public.Friday, June 30, 2017

We've seen American flag bikinis -- stars on the bottom and stripes on top or the other way around. Flags are used as bandanas and curtains. They decorate paper napkins on which we wipe hamburger grease. They appear on disposable diapers and are draped over car hoods.Thursday, June 29, 2017